An Extravert Surviving While Working from Home
I get my energy from other humans, period. When COVID hit and my company, like many others, told us not to return to the office until further notice. They really are doing the right thing and I’m grateful that I have a job, where I can easily work from home. But, I miss walking up to another individual and asking them a quick question. I do have plenty of options to communicate with any member of my team, but I still miss them none,
So what does a confirmed ADHD, extravert do to bring life into my work hours? I’m still working on it, but I can share what I do.
What are the Stats?
Stanford economist, Nicholas Bloom found that a staggering 42% of the U.S. labor force now work from home full-time as reported by May Wong. The study created by Kate Lister, president of Global Workplace Analytics, and Dr. Anita Kamouri, Co-Founder of Iometrics, Global Work-from-Home Experience Survey, estimates that 25–30% of the workforce will be working at home on a multiple-days-a-week basis by the end of 2021.
Who’s Working from Home
Only 51% of the Global Work-from-Home Experience Survey respondents — mostly managers, professionals, and financial workers — reported being able to work from home. With the exception of people working in retail stores, the food industry, medical professionals, and any hands-on careers that require special equipment and materials to complete their jobs, pretty much everyone else that can work with a computer and has internet can work from home. It’s not always easy or glamorous, I have friends working from their bedrooms, basements, and garages.
Companies and Employees See Fiscal Benefits
Lister and Kamouri have estimated that companies can save upwards of $11,000/year per employee working remotely at least half time. Additionally, employees also benefit by saving an estimated $2.5K to $4K per year working remotely at least half time. The reality for me is: I don’t commute to work and my company doesn’t have to pay for space that I occupy in an office. There are clear fiscal benefits for both employer and employee to not return to the office.
These facts make me think that I could be working from home for a long while. Pandora’s box has been opened and companies now understand that employees can work efficiently from home, while also reducing operating costs. I need to get creative, so I don’t fall into despair for not having people around me while I work.
Strategies for Keeping Sane
Locate your office in a bright space
If you have space, locate your workspace in a room with sunlight. Depression, due to the lack of sunlight is a real thing! It’s called “SAD” or Seasonal Affective Disorder. I have the space to put my new work desk in the front room of my house, with two big windows and no curtains. I’m always going to wear clothes in that room. Put a lamp on your desk for those cloudy days (it’s currently raining as I write). A dark space will be easy on your eyes, but might just put you to sleep.
Customize Your Workspace
Set up your space so it’s easy to get your job done. Because I like to change positions throughout the day, I bought an adjustable desk that moves up and down. I can’t sit all day — did I mention the ADHD? There are many options for moving at your desk. I find just being able to stand is enough for now. I often stand for meetings, as it helps me actively listen. I remember those days when I could get up and walk over to another’s desk or literally go to a meeting. Those things have been replaced with technology. So, standing for a meeting keeps me engaged and attentive.
I know many people have their desks in their bedrooms and basements and they may even share space with other family members. A friend of mine set up his office in a shed (The Shoffice). He insulated the shed and installed a heated and air conditioner. By moving to the shoffice, he freed up the office in the house for his wife, who’s on the phone all day. So, don’t be afraid to get creative with your space.
Get Off Your Seat and Move
Sitting and staring at the screen, trying to get that one last thing done isn’t doing yourself any favors. If you have a dog, walk it in the middle of the day. Put your headphones on and go for a run. I have found, walking around my neighborhood in the middle of the day, that my stay-at-home neighbors are out also. So, hallelujah, I can talk to a human in person! I recently tried disc golf, its free and there are a few courses in my area, so I can get out and play a quick round. I’m only mentioning activities you can do outside since, you know — Covid. Once this is over, many of us will not be returning to an office. So, embrace your new free time — remember you are not commuting anymore.
Your Health is Important: Eat Right
You probably don’t need reminding. But, you are likely to eat more at home, than at work. It’s just too easy. When I worked in an office, I ate at lunchtime and maybe had a snack or two. But now, my desk is located next to my kitchen. Also, I can get lazy about putting a meal together, so I will graze. That has to stop.
- Drink plenty of water. Dehydration will make you tired.
- If you like to cook, take the time to get out of your seat and prepare a light meal. I usually have some kind of left-over protein which I will add to arugula and any vegetables I find in the fridge.
- Stock healthy snacks like almonds and fruit.
- Do yourself a huge favor and don’t bring home chips, so satisfying to eat, but will sabotage your calorie intake.
- Be kind to yourself, don’t beat yourself up, and give yourself a break if you have gained weight. You are not alone, the pandemic has affected many appetites.
It’s not too late to make changes and choose healthy food when you’re hungry.
Communicate with Your Team
If you are working from home, your company has likely provided you with tools, besides email, to communicate with people at work. We use Slack and Zoom to communicate with our teams throughout the day. Many of these are scheduled meetings. But, we also spin up meetings to collaborate with our teams, if not just to see another human. I get a lot more out of a Zoom meeting than just messaging back and forth. I sometimes work with a team in India. When they have a question, they will Slack me (to send a message via Slack) with something like “ I have a small doubt regarding…”. Then we will spin up a Zoom meeting to review the problem. These meetings generally last a few minutes. We greet each other, engage in small banter, and tackle the problem together. It’s very satisfying.
If you don’t already incorporate some kind of check-in meetings with co-workers, create one now. Throughout the week, I will have meetings with different teams on a regular basis. In these meetings, we will talk about what we have worked on, what we will work on, and if we have anything preventing us from accomplishing our tasks. A check-in meeting can be as simple as “How is your day going”. They don’t have to be structured, but an agenda helps when you are meeting over Zoom. Each person in the meeting should have time to express their thoughts.
Check out online-sketch tools. One of the tools a co-worker uses in his meetings is called Miro. He uses this communication tool to allow his team to express their feelings about their workweek by drawing and sharing their thoughts. It’s a great way to get the team to open up and begin the process of conducting a meeting. There are a number of online applications that can help folks draw or write their thoughts down so that people keep them top of mind.
Your company may have sprung for Slack or another online chat tool like Chanty, Fleep, Flock, Microsoft Teams, Ryver, Glip, or Hangouts Chat. These tools allow you to message individuals and teams while keeping all communication and allowing document sharing. Use these tools to create groups of work friends so you can keep talking to them throughout the day. Have some fun (appropriately, of course). We even have a Baby Yoda channel!
Empathize with your Co-Workers
While being apart physically from my co-workers has lessened my opportunity to interact with them, it has increased my knowledge of their “real” lives. Many people have more than their jobs to deal with when working from home during COVID (I can’t believe I am saying COVID like it's an age or period during our human existence). Many people have kids, who are attending school at home and need help from time to time. Really? They are kids, with the attention span of a flea. Give your co-worker the time to address their child’s needs. I find that you can help your co-worker by interacting with the little humans. I also have a number of co-workers, who’s cats randomly walk across the screen. My dogs have figured out that I will respond pretty quickly with a treat if they bark during a meeting. I have a co-worker who will, on occasion, brings her snakes to a video meeting — definitely better over video than in real person. A sense of humor can only help when these little interruptions occur during meetings.
Learning to listen and empathize with your team will benefit everyone. I got pretty lucky with a manager, who also serves as my therapist at times. She has made it easy to have mini therapy sessions where we discuss schools being closed, spouses working directly next to each other 24/7, never getting to leave the house, and maybe going a little nuts. We need to really listen to each other, vent with each other, and understand that mental health is much more fragile for most people now than it was before COVID. We can help each other learn to navigate this new reality.
Get Creative
Clearly, I’m not the only one feeling lonely working from home. We recently started Lunch & Learns, presenting to small groups of interested folks. These types of meetings help to learn more about the presenter’s role at the company and give folks a way to interact more or less naturally with each other. If you haven’t thought of it already, as the presenter, tell a short story about yourself or talk about something that happened to you recently. We’ve had Zoom happy hours — which aren’t awful. We manage to talk one at a time, likely because we have learned to interact with each other via Zoom now.
Help each other
Learn to listen to folks. We can help each other by hearing people out. Give people time to say what is on their mind. If there is someone who is having trouble being heard, help bring them to the attention of the group. We all work differently, give each other the gift of listening to your workmates.
We Might Not Return to the Office, So…
Take steps now to configure your perfect office space, get the tools you need to collaborate with workmates, get out of your seat, and eat right. If you can, get creative with your office situation and meet with co-workers regularly so you can keep engaged at work.
